NBA star Luol Deng steps in to stop ex-coach’s Brixton eviction

A British basketball star who plays in the NBA has intervened to stop his former coach being evicted from his Brixton home.

Luol Deng, 28, who Barack Obama has called “an inspiration”, stepped in after hearing Jimmy Rogers, 70, was at risk of losing the home he has lived in for more than 30 years.

Mr Rogers discovered Deng, who is 6ft 9in tall, as a teenager. He went on to represent Great Britain and plays for the Chicago Bulls.

The star, right, is one of the highest earning British sportsmen, with a salary of 13 million dollars.

Lambeth Council was due to evict Mr Rogers from the two-bedroom Shannon Grove property — but has now granted him a stay of execution.

The council claimed that it needed to sell Mr Rogers’s house to help recoup £450 million of lost Government funding. In a letter, Deng, who came to the UK when he was seven after fleeing the Sudanese civil war, said he “simply could not let this pass by without trying to help”.

He said: “Jimmy is Brixton. He has done so much for the community helping thousands of kids get off the streets and do something constructive with their lives.

“He is known as someone who gives back, who helps. For the community not to give back to him for the only time he needs something is just wrong.”

Kate Hoey, the Labour MP for Lambeth, said: “I find it astonishing that the council should evict someone who has given their life to the young people of Brixton. He is a local legend.”

A council spokesman said: “Mr Rogers has only recently begun to engage with us. Now that he is talking to us as we wanted, we are willing to delay the eviction proceedings.”